Our People – old
Board & Staff
Judith Turkel
Board Chair
Judith's Bio
For nearly 40 years, Judith maintained an active law practice in New York City working in the areas of real estate, family law, and wills, trusts and estates. Significant aspects of her estate planning practice involved helping clients develop special provisions for companion animals and express their charitable intentions through their estate planning. Judith is also a trained professional mediator who mediates agreements and conflicts for people who wish to participate in an amicable and constructive process. At the end of 2020, she and her long-time law partner closed their practice and now she proudly devotes her time to being an advocate for animals and promoting plant-based diet change.
Judith has always found ways to combine her professional knowledge and personal dedication to social justice and change by working closely with non-profit organizations. She was a founding Board member of the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of New York; served on and co-chaired the Board of Directors of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and of SAGE: Services and Advocacy for LGBT Elders. As President of the Board of Directors of the LGBT Community Center, she helped lead a $13 million capital campaign.
Judith has received numerous awards and recognition, including from Pace Law School (her alma mater); the NYC Bar Association LGBT Rights Committee, Stonewall Community Foundation, the National LGBT Bar Association, SAGE and the NYC LGBT Community Center.
As a Board Member and Strategic Advisor at ADP, Judith assists animal charities in creating their unique mission; fundraising; selection, growth and engagement of board members; strategic planning; and governance.
In her work as an animal and vegan advocate, Judith presently serves as Chair of the board of Catskill Animal Sanctuary. Catskill Animal Sanctuary, an ADP client, is a 148-acre refuge in New York's Hudson Valley for farmed animals rescued from cruelty, neglect, and abandonment, and champions veganism.
Judith and her partner Jennifer Costley live in the Hudson Valley with their dogs Maisie and Annabelle. Judith is an avid reader, hiker, world traveler and a committed vegan who loves to cook and believes that introducing people to delicious vegan meals is one of the best ways to create more vegans and as result, a more compassionate world.
David Ebert
Co-Founder
David's Bio
David, a former lawyer, is a lifelong proponent of animal protection. He co-founded ADP with Joel Litvin in 2016 as a means to devote himself more fully to protecting animals and reducing suffering.
He is also a founder of Animal Protection Capacity Builders, a collective of member organizations that offer free and low-cost capacity building services to animal protection nonprofits. Its members include organizations that provide legal services; technology and advisory assistance; digital resources for animal sanctuaries; explanatory and investigative journalism and commentary; research, analysis and strategies; career and placement services; original photo and videojournalism materials; and marketing services.
David is particularly interested in working to improve the lives of elephants in the U.S. and other parts of the world. This includes projects directed to freeing elephants languishing in captivity in zoos and parks across the US. He continues to collaborate with other advocates and organizations in the effort to rescue individual captive elephants and have them placed in accredited sanctuaries.
David is a member of Pro Elephant Network, which is a global community of diverse individuals and organizations that provides a strong framework of cooperation and networking to reverse and cease harmful practices towards Elephants. And he serves on the Advisory Board of FACE (Free All Captive Elephants), which is dedicated to rescuing captive elephants in North America.He is also a member of Rowdy Girl Sanctuary’s Rancher Advisory Coalition, which is devoted to helping families transition away from animal agriculture and the practices associated with factory and family farms. He is on the Board of Advisors for TerraMar Research, a nonprofit with a proven commitment to the study and protection of wildlife and the environment with an emphasis on marine mammals and marine ecosystems.
Before founding ADP, David was never on any committees or the president of anything.
David practiced law for 33 years before retiring in October 2019. He trained at the former Shea & Gould law firm and then practiced as a partner at the Ingram firm in New York City, having started with the firm at its inception in 1989. He litigated complex commercial matters and regularly tried cases in state and federal court in New York and around the country. He also served as outside general counsel to several small and midsize companies.
David received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his law degree from NYU. He was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of the State of New York, the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. David held an AV-Preeminent rating, the highest possible peer review rating by the publishers of the Martindale-Hubbell legal directory, for legal ability and ethical standards based on the confidential opinions of the Bar and the Judiciary. He also maintained a 9.6/10 rating on Avvo, an independent attorney rating service.
David's family lives in Hastings-on-Hudson in Westchester County, New York, together with their beloved dogs, Frieda and Mo. His daughter is in college. And, culminating a long-standing ambition, in November 2016 David visited with the Hirwa family of mountain gorillas in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park. In November 2018 he returned to Africa to visit the Ugandan gorillas and other wildlife. He went back again in 2019 to visit elephant and rhino orphanages, sanctuaries and rescues in Kenya. In 2020, he had to stay home, indoors.
Joel Litvin
Co-Founder
Joel's Bio
Joel served as President, League Operations of the National Basketball Association until his retirement in 2015 after 27 years with the League. Prior to serving in that position he was the League’s General Counsel.
Over the course of his career, Joel was in charge of numerous areas of the NBA’s business, including legal affairs, collective bargaining, franchise sales and relocations, basketball operations, security, revenue sharing, and social responsibility. He also led the League’s work with the NBA Board of Governors on a wide range of business, competition, and governance matters.
Prior to joining the NBA, Joel worked for the New York law firm of Willkie Farr and Gallagher.
Joel is currently an Adjunct Professor in Columbia University‘s graduate Sports Management program. He previously served as a Professor in the global master of law program of Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economia and as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Penn State Law School.
Joel has also served as consultant to various sports properties including the Brooklyn Nets, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the XFL, and the Crown League.
Joel currently serves on the boards of Madison Square Garden Entertainment; USA Climbing, the national governing body for the sport of competition climbing; and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
He graduated with a B.S. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and received his law degree from NYU.
Joel lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, with his wife Lisa and their rescue cats, Baxter and Tommy. His daughter Janey is in college and his son Jesse works in Boston.
Stephanie Jeshiva
Board Member
Stephanie's Bio
Stephanie Jeshiva serves as Editor-in-Chief of Practical Law The Journal: Transactions & Business, a Thomson Reuters publication with a circulation of over 50k law firm and in-house attorneys. She manages all aspects of the print and online production of the magazine, including strategic planning, commissioning, editing, and design.
Stephanie is passionate about pro bono work and is a lead member of the Thomson Reuters Pro Bono Committee, responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with pro bono partner organizations and promoting pro bono opportunities. She also frequently advises non-profit organizations on various corporate, commercial, and employment law matters, as well as assists individuals with immigration and public benefits issues.
Stephanie previously worked as a corporate associate in the New York office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, focusing on private equity and hedge fund formation, and as a legal intern at the Federal Trade Commission and at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York. She earned her J.D., cum laude, from Fordham University School of Law in 2007 and her B.A., summa cum laude, in Economics from Fordham University in 2002.
Stephanie lives in Chappaqua, New York with her husband, David, two young children, Nathan and Zadie, their cat, Sidney, and rescue dog, Maple.
Allan E. Kornberg MD, MBA
Strategic Advisor
Allan's Bio
Allan E. Kornberg, MD, MBA is a pediatrician who has practiced both primary care and emergency pediatrics.
He’s served as Vice-Chair and Associate Professor of Pediatrics, and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, at the University of Buffalo, and as Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Brown University. He co-founded a pediatrics practice in Western New York and served as the Chief of Emergency Medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Buffalo. He advocated on behalf of survivors of child abuse and sexual assault, was the co-editor of a textbook ‘Child Abuse and Neglect-A Medical Reference,’ and wrote peer review articles on child abuse and emergency pediatrics.
Allan served as medical director with managed care organizations, provider institutions, and advocacy groups, frequently focused on population health for the underserved, in Georgia, New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. He was the Medicaid Medical Director for Rhode Island and was Chief Medical Officer and subsequently CEO for Network Health, a managed care organization that serves impoverished families in Massachusetts.
Dr. Kornberg served as the executive director for the United States for World Animal Protection, and as the executive director for Farm Sanctuary, a non-profit focused on providing lifetime care for abused farm animals, educating the public, advocating on behalf of better treatment for farm animals, and in the promotion of plant-based diets. He has additionally worked on a number of animal protection projects, typically seeking to reduce the numbers of animals raised for food and subject to experiments in laboratories, while pursuing more compassionate treatment for those currently on farms and in research facilities. Allan is the current board chair of the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries.
Jennifer Buesser, Esq.
Staff Attorney
Jennifer's Bio
Jennifer joined ADP in June 2022, bringing with her a breadth of experience in corporate and business law that she is excited to put to use in fulltime service of the animal rights community.
Throughout her career, Jennifer has sought to use her skills and knowledge to build and empower clients. Acting as outside general counsel to small and medium-sized businesses, she has counseled clients on a wide variety of matters: business formation and structure; business succession planning and ownership transfer; merger, stock purchase, asset purchase and other corporate transactions; shareholder/partnership disputes; employment practices and disputes; joint ventures; and negotiation and drafting of vendor, client and other commercial agreements and licenses. She has also represented clients in litigation and arbitration matters arising from contract, ownership, employment, and other business disputes.
Jennifer started her legal career in a small corporate law and commercial litigation boutique, following the firm through several transitions before joining Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti, LLP in 2006, where she became a partner. After leaving Ingram in 2012, Jennifer worked in legal technology, first with Kira Systems, a Toronto-based legal software provider, and then on a series of projects with the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York.
Jennifer earned a B.A. from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, before moving to New York City where she earned a J.D., cum laude, from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (Yeshiva University). While in law school, Jennifer worked in Cardozo’s Bet Tzedek (“House of Justice”) Civil Litigation Clinic, representing low-income elderly and disabled people seeking health, disability, and housing benefits.
Jennifer lives in Northern New Jersey with her family, including dog Rosie and cats Stripes and Simba. She is active in her community, serving as an officer and board member of Mountain Top League, a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit youth sports organization, and on the steering committee of a public school advocacy group.
Lesley Tse, Esq.
Staff Attorney
Lesley's Bio
Lesley joined ADP after a 15-year-long career as a litigator and is thrilled that her work for ADP combines her skills as an attorney with her passion for animal rights.
Lesley’s legal practice has always been mission-driven and client-centered. She started her legal career in New York City, defending low-income tenants from eviction in New York City’s housing courts. During that time, she also conducted numerous CLE trainings for attorneys and other advocates on housing issues. She then moved to a federal practice, representing large classes of workers in federal courts across the country in litigation for unpaid wages. As a workers’ rights attorney, she drafted amicus curiae briefs on behalf of the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) and presented on numerous wage-and-hour issues at NELA and American Bar Association conferences.
Lesley earned her bachelor’s degree from New York University and her law degree from Fordham University Law School. She went vegan in 2018, having been a vegetarian for 20 years, after she started volunteering regularly at Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, where she eventually became a board member.
Lesley currently lives in New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley, with her husband, two rescue dogs, and an ever-rotating cast of foster dogs. She can often be found hiking with her dogs, reading, knitting sweaters, traveling the world in search of the best vegan food, and practicing yoga.
Helena Bouchard
Paralegal
Helena's Bio
Helena is a recent graduate from Boston University with a degree in both Sociology and Mathematics with a concentration in Statistics. She garnered a strong educational background in social inequalities and institutions, law and punishment, immigration, and political sociology.
Helena previously interned at Children of Prisoners Europe (COPE) in Montrouge, France, where she wrote and edited articles for biannual journals and drafted press releases for international conferences concerning the rights of children of prisoners. Helena also has experience as a field research assistant at Boston University, where she helped develop a project studying gender, class, and race relations in multiple universities’ social scenes in the greater Boston area.
Having been a passionate vegan for over seven years, Helena is constantly striving to improve her and others’ understanding of animal welfare issues and finding new ways to incorporate advocacy in her life. She has particular interest in protecting farmed animals, working with rescued domestic pets, and advocating for wildlife preservation.
Helena has spent much of her free time volunteering at local shelters and the MSPCA, while also working with groups like Nashville Animal Advocacy on various advocacy campaigns. She is also a proud plant mom, ardent rock collector, and takes every opportunity to travel. She currently resides in Nashville, TN with her mother and beloved rescue Bootsy.
Jaclyn Leeds, Esq.
Communications Director
Jaclyn's Bio
Jaclyn practiced nonprofit law for six years with a focus on supporting grassroots animal organizations. She transitioned into nonprofit management and communications when she served as Executive Director of Northwest VEG, a regional nonprofit dedicated to educating and encouraging people to make plant-based choices.
A lifelong animal lover, Jaclyn was introduced to animal law while interning for two summers during her undergraduate studies at Animals Asia Foundation in Hong Kong. She has since worked in both a legal and program management capacity with numerous US organizations dedicated to protecting farmed animals, companion animals, and animals used in research.
She studied psychology and music at Wellesley College and earned her J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2012. She has served as Chair of the Animal Law Section of the Oregon State Bar and on the editorial board of Animal Law Review. She’s licensed to practice law in Oregon. Jaclyn grew up in New Hampshire and currently lives in Portland, Oregon with her three rescues: pup Ziva, kitty Willow, and quaker parrot Houdini. Outside of her work on behalf of animals, Jaclyn enjoys teaching yoga, singing in the car, serenading the house plants with piano, hiking year-round, and working on her cooking so it reflects that vegan food is delicious.
Mary Dulka, Esq.
Of Counsel
Mary's Bio
Mary has over twenty years of experience as a securities litigation attorney and practiced in federal courts throughout the country. She handled all aspects of defending claims against banks, corporations, mutual fund advisers and directors in complex class actions and shareholder derivative actions. She also provided strategic advice to in-house counsel and boards of directors and worked closely with boards to investigate alleged wrongdoing within companies.
Mary started her career at the law firm Clifford Chance (formerly Rogers & Wells), and later moved to Goodwin Procter where she was promoted to partner. She was co-head of the Women’s Initiative at Goodwin’s New York office, and created programs to develop and advance female attorneys. She also was active in pro bono matters, such as providing immigration assistance to victims of domestic violence and working on a brief supporting a transgender student’s access to restrooms. While building her litigation practice, Mary also nurtured her childhood passion for animals. She spent many years supporting local shelters by socializing cats and dogs, assisting adopters, and promoting the shelters’ mission at community outreach events.
In 2016, Mary decided to leave Goodwin to focus on developing a career to help animals. This new path brought her to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in southern Utah, where she worked as a caregiver for special needs cats. The sanctuary’s unique environment enabled Mary to expand her animal knowledge of animal welfare issues through interactions with the founders and staff, attending weekly presentations about legislative and other initiatives, and doing volunteer work with pigs and horses. She later joined the adoptions team at Best Friends’ lifesaving center in New York, where she collaborated with local rescue groups to intake and promote their animals at the center. Mary enjoys doing volunteer work for Best Friends, the ASPCA and Mid Hudson Animal Aid and supporting those organizations by fostering kittens and special needs cats.
Mary has a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and received her law degree from NYU. She lives in Chappaqua, New York with her husband, Arthur Larkin, and their two rescue cats, Coco and Cinnamon. Her daughter Catherine is a recent college graduate now working in the Hudson Valley area.
Consultants & Volunteers
Drew Alexis
Volunteer Counsel
Drew's Bio
Drew Alexis has worked at both large and small law firms and served as an in-house attorney for publicly-traded corporations and as general counsel to a national non-profit corporation, giving him an extensive and diverse legal experience. As in-house counsel for a financial institution, Drew managed a Human Resources Legal and Compliance Department of ten employees and established a Wage and Hour Division within the company to address wage and hour matters for the company.
Drew also has served as an Associate Adjunct Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, California and the University of California – Irvine School of Law and has taught courses on Employment Discrimination Law, Sexual Orientation and the Law and Animal Law.
Mary Harrington
CPA
Mary's Bio
Mary Harrington is a Certified Public Accountant and financial management professional with over thirty years of leadership experience in non-profit organizations, with a personal commitment to animal welfare and environmental organizations. She has broad financial management experience including managing international organizations, developing and restructuring financial operations, supporting and serving on boards, and non-profit mergers. Mary has held financial leadership positions with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the US Environmental Training Institute, and The Woods Hole Research Center. She helped found the Cape Cod Stranding Network, dedicated to rescuing and releasing stranded marine mammals in her home area of Cape Cod, serving as Treasurer and ultimately leading its merger with IFAW.
Mary currently serves as Director of Finance and Treasurer of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, MA. She provides financial management and counsel to MBL leadership and its Board of Trustees, is responsible for driving overall financial strategy as well as managing all aspects of its financial operation. She ensures that the stewardship of those resources meets the highest standards of the MBL’s funders including government agencies, financial institutions, investors, private philanthropists, and tax/audit/rating authorities, earning their trust and confidence.
Mary received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at the Kutztown University of Pennsylvania and was licensed as a Certified Public Accountant in Massachusetts.
Gerald Kahwa
Consultant
Gerald's Bio
Gerald currently works with Africa CDC acting as a finance liaison for some of the Africa projects and other projects monitored at the AFENET Secretariat on top of offering support in ensuring sound financial reporting and strengthening the organization’s financial system. He is also a founder Director of a Non Profit Making Organization called Africa Seedling Alliance whose mission is “...to get the right seedlings to the right people for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in Africa for the benefit of current and future generations.” Gerald is deeply committed to animal and plant life protection.
Gerald has previously worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Uganda and USAID Uganda Biodiversity Fund, both roles have natured him into his current roles and position.
Gerald has vast experience in internal controls, grants management, procurement, financial management, financial reporting, sub grantee management, board governance, audit, human resource management, business advisory, compliance and administration.
Gerald is a Certified Public Accountant, a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Makerere University Uganda. He has done several trainings in Internal Controls under the revised Green Book, USAID and CDC Financial Management and Compliance 2017/2018 and beyond, financial management for USAID Funding, compliance & capacity development training, USAID Rules & Regulations Grants & Cooperative Agreements, Environmental Procedures and Compliance.
Dannielle Mattes
Volunteer Counsel
Dannielle's Bio
Dannielle Mattes is an employee benefits attorney in New York’s Hudson Valley. Her areas of expertise include ACA, ERISA, DOL and IRS compliance as well as HR and employment related matters. Dannielle has also worked within the NYS Court System, State Administrative agencies and corporate regulatory compliance departments. She holds a J.D. from the University at Buffalo School of Law, where she completed the Environmental Law concentration program.
As a passionate vegan and advocate for all animals and the environment, Dannielle is thrilled to use her skills to support likeminded organizations and non-profits, including engaging in street and online activism and volunteering opportunities.
David Nadler
Volunteer Counsel
David's Bio
Dave Nadler focuses his practice on bid protests; government audits and investigations; the False Claims Act; contract claims, terminations and disputes; government cost, accounting, and pricing issues; suspension and debarment cases; the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; and government compliance matters, including mandatory disclosure issues.
Dave is consistently rated by Chambers USA as one of the leading government contracts attorneys in the country. According to Chambers, “clients appreciate that he is ‘extremely responsive, very knowledgeable and provides common-sense advice. He understands how to advise businesses in a way that is practical from both a business and legal perspective.’” Seen as a “[t]rusted adviser,” clients also say that Dave “has great client relation skills, very deep experience and is able to anticipate issues, not just be reactive. He asks the right questions and this allows him to give the best advice.” Dave is recognized by sources as “a master of the subject matter” and as being “among the best government contracts attorneys in the country.”
Dave was selected by Law360 as a Government Contracts MVP for 2017, and under his leadership the Firm’s Government Contracts practice was twice selected by Law360 as a Practice Group of the Year. He is also a recipient of the Federal 100 award, which recognizes top executives from the government, academia, and the private sector for their contributions to the government contracts community. Dave was selected as a Top Lawyer, Government Contracts, by Washingtonian Magazine in 2018.
Susan Witkin
Volunteer Counsel
Susan's Bio
Susan Witkin, TEP, is a partner in Pryor Cashman’s Trusts + Estates, Private Client and Tax Groups, where she advises clients on estate planning, estate and trust administration, and related litigation. She specializes in sophisticated tax and estate planning, drafting, and implementation for high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals, including real estate investors and managers, art collectors, professionals, members of multinational families, entrepreneurs, and business owners in traditional and emerging industries and technologies.
Susan is an active member of the New York City Bar Association’s Animal Law Committee and is dedicated to protecting animal welfare generally and with a particular focus on animal agriculture. She serves as pro bono counsel to The Animal Defense Partnership, providing counsel to it and to the animal welfare organizations it serves. She is also pro bono counsel to Ruff House Rescue, Inc., a Long Island and Texas animal rescue organization, advising them on a range of issues including tax, litigation and governance, as well as the Linnaean Society, assisting them with corporate and tax advice. She is also the joyful owner of three companion dogs (one a rescue from her client Ruff House Rescue).
Susan earned her B.A. from Queen’s College, her J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law, and her L.L.M in Taxation from the New York University School of Law.